The figures, revealed in Department of Health documents, show that in just 12 months sales of non-alcoholic and low alcohol drinks sold have risen by 20.5 per cent. Meanwhile sales of high-strength beers fell by 12 per cent, the figures show.

Over the last decade drinking among young people has steadily fallen.

Experts said the sharp rise in sales of low-alcohol drinks reflected a major expansion in the industry, responding to such trends and to the growing success of movements like "Dry January".

The data from analysts Nielsen shows sales of one low-alcohol beer - called Nanny State - rose by more than 50 per cent over the period. In total, £2m was spent on the BrewDog product in the 12 months ending last July, a rise from £1.3m the year before.

Experts said companies were capitalising on health trends among younger generations.

And they said some millennials were choosing soft drinks and low alcohol options because they were worried pictures of them drunk could haunt them on social media.

Overall, value sales of low and non-alcoholic brews rose by £5.9m to £34.7m, a rise of 20.5 per cent, with volumes up 16.8 per cent, in the year ending last July, the data shows.

Laura Willoughby, from Club Soda, a group which encourages "mindful drinking" said:"Younger millennials increasingly expect more than 'vertical drinking' - that's a night at the pub with a pint. They are looking for an experience- an interesting venue, a bit of drama, good food. They want a nice drink but it doesn't really matter if its alcoholic or not."

She said: "Some of this is driven by health, gym membership is up among younger people and they don't want to undo all their efforts. It's also a generation that's very attuned to social media, and thinks about what will look good. They are very conscious they don't want drunk pictures on social media."

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows the proportion of adults who say they drink alcohol is at the lowest level on record. In total, 56.9 per cent of those aged 16 and over had a drink in the week before being interviewed - a fall from 64.2 per cent in 2005, the data shows.

And the figures show that those aged 16 to 24 are least likely to drink of any other age group, with 27 per cent teetotal - a rise from 19 per cent a decade ago.

Dr James Nicholls, director of research at Alcohol Concern and Alcohol Research UK said today's youth could be reacting against the "laissez faire" attitude shown by their rather boozier parents, "who hardly look cool knocking back the wine with their friends".

He also said social media played a part.

"While uploading shots of drunk friends was a bit of a feature of early Facebook use, increasingly people don’t want images of themselves drunk online: it’s not a good look for Instagram, and it’s not a good idea in terms of future employment," he said.

Last year Heineken launched 0.0, an alcohol-free lager, while Carlsberg has set targets to double sales of alcohol-free variants by 2022.

Figures from Tesco show sales of low-alcohol beer, wine and spirits during “Dry January” were more than twice those the previous year, following the introduction of a new range of low-alcohol wines.

Recent research on more than 1,000 millennials found they saw getting drunk as something "done by an "older generation".

The data, from a survey by Eventbrite, found only one in ten saw getting drunk as "cool" while four in ten took a negative view, describing it as"pathetic" or "embarrassing".

While overall drinking levels have fallen among younger generations, teenage girls remain among worst in the world for binge drinking. Latest figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found 31 per cent of 15-year-old girls said they had been drunk at least twice - compared with 26 per cent of boys.

The UK is one of just three countries where girls are outdrinking boys.

Rosanna O'Connor, director of drugs, alcohol and tobacco at Public Health England said the rise of teetotalism among the young was bringing overall consumption levels down.

“Although we don’t know exactly why sales of low and non-alcoholic drinks have increased, it’s interesting to see that more people are perhaps being more health conscious and starting to buy these alternatives,” she said.

But she said the people cutting back tended to be those who were not drinking that heavily.

“Those who are at high-risk of health conditions because they drink heavily, are drinking more now than they did before. There’s still more to be done,” she said.